This invention relates generally to the field of checkout counter construction of a type commonly used in supermarkets and other self-service merchandising operations in which individual customers select displayed items, placing them in a shopping cart and, when selection is complete, moving the cart to a checkout counter for tabulation, bagging and removal from the store.
At the present stage of development of this form of merchandising, the purchased items are unloaded by the customer from his cart and placed upon a moving belt or other advancement means under the control of a cashier, whereby they are advanced in increments to the area of a cash register for individual tallying, following which they are moved either manually or by a second belt to a downstream area for subsequent bagging, following which they are picked up and carried away by the customer. The bagging has been performed for the most part by store personnel, either manually, or using bagging devices which have met with only limited commercial acceptance for reasons of complexity, high cost, elaborate maintenance and the like.
When the bagging operation is performed manually, it is normally done by the cashier, alone, or with the assistance of a bagging clerk. Notwithstanding the number of store personnel ininvolved, using existing methods and structure, it is not normally possible to service more than one customer at a time, and these customers progress in single file past the cashier.